Atlanta United: 5 key players to watch during busy week

4. Julian Gressel

Thanks to Julian Gressel, Atlanta won their first home match of the year against Colorado back on April 27. His lone goal proved to be the difference in that 1-0 victory, but outside of his important goal, he hasn’t made much of an impact during Atlanta’s strong stretch of matches. That should change this week.

Gressel started the season on fire, scoring Atlanta’s only goal in their 3-1 loss to Herediano of Costa Rica in the first match of the CONCACAF Champions League. Then, to start their MLS campaign, Gressel assisted on both of Atlanta’s goals in the first three games. But since then, he has been largely absent from the team’s success besides his game-winning goal against Colorado.

Because Gressel has been so quiet on the field I expect him to make a larger impact this week starting on Wednesday night. Although he has never scored or assisted in Atlanta’s four matches against Toronto, he may have a chance to do so this week. Toronto will be occupied with trying to shut down Josef Martinez and Pity Martinez and Hector Villalba. Gressel should be able to take advantage of that as an unconvincing Toronto defense may have a hard time defending all four.